Posted on 01/03/2010 6:31:08 PM PST by HokieMom
A year ago, political, cultural, economic and media pundits were united in singing President-elect Obama's praises. They assured us that by working with enlightened congressional leaders like Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Obama would give us a post-racial, post-partisan, post-Bush Valhalla. There, no citizen would ever again be left wanting for decent health care, a rewarding job, a home warmed in winter and cooled in summer with green energy, a comfortable pension, or a college education. It would be an America in which our liberal leaders would finally deliver "change we can believe in" instead of merely promising it. Best of all, they would do it by "cutting taxes for 95 percent of working Americans" and instituting a "net spending cut" on the federal budget. Verily, it seemed, there truly was a free lunch after all.
What a difference one year makes. Liberals may be forgiven for looking at the latest public opinion surveys and wondering if they somehow stumbled into the Valley of Death instead of Obama's promised paradise. The president remains somewhat popular personally, but, as Matthew Continetti of The Weekly Standard wrote recently, "Obama's domestic program is exceedingly unpopular. The public disapproves of the president's bailouts, stimulus, health care reform, and cap and trade policies, not to mention his decision to close the terrorist prison at Guantanamo Bay." That Continetti was perhaps too kind is seen in this stunning fact: When George W. Bush returned, bloodied and bruised, to his Texas home after eight years in the White House, 43 percent of Americans surveyed by Scott Rasmussen "strongly disapproved" of the job he had done. Today, after less than a year in office, 46 percent express the same intense level of opposition to Obama.
But it's not just Obama who has generated a massive shift, particularly among independents, against what the Pew Research Center's Andrew Kohut calls "activist government." Only a fourth of all Americans approve of the direction Obama and Congress are taking the country, according to a Gallup survey. A similarly dismal proportion approve of the job being done by Congress under the leadership of Reid and Pelosi. Nearly three-fourths of those surveyed prefer that Congress do nothing to reform health care rather than take final action on either the Senate or House versions of Obamacare. And 79 percent of Americans view government corruption as the most important issue facing the country. That can't be encouraging to a president who learned his politics the "Chicago Way."
Yup. Chairman Obama. Doesn’t care what anybody thinks.
The stars still must align just so in order for us to capitalize on it.
“All corruption all the time” says Mrs. RQSR.
I hope that the country is moving right, but I see not much evidence of it.
You’ll love this. Someone sent me the link. An inspirational battle cry.
“America Rising: An Open Letter to Democrat Politicians”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HiyqvuTxaEs
It took a Carter to get a Reagan.
But he will succeed in moving the country another notch to the left, no matter what. So he has won.
Whatever he succeeds in dumping on us, at best it will be only partially repealed.
I don't see very many Republican politicians fighting that. More Government is more power for them, too.
It's up to the voters to vote them out. But they won't. We want our Free Stuff.
Unfunded liabilities = $106,000,000,000,000. That proves it. We want our Free Stuff.
Face it. It's the voters.
Thank you. Mrs. RQSR.
In the immortal words of Alanis Morissette, “Isn’t it ironic?”
Reversing it for a few years only slows the movement to the left.
We need permanent movement to the right. Aint gonna happen until we take back government AND education and the media.
Spell check still refuses to recognize Obama as a name or a word, can a computer program be racist?
Non-observant idiots need a day to day reminder as to what they believe in. Obama provides it.
“...It took a Carter to get a Reagan....”
And it’s taking an Øbama to gat a Palin.
There was an article a while back where HP’s “facial recognition software” wouldn’t recognize a black man’s face, but would latch onto the white man’s face.
So, I guess, yes, computers and software can be “racist”, as in, treating people differently based on skin color.
hmmmm...that got pulled from Youtube earlier.....I’ll have to mail it off again!
It’s interesting that so much of this is simply Obama’s doing. The right have merely been trying to tell people about him and the people he’s surrounded himself with.
And still most of the public hasn’t been exposed to the truth about Obama. Most of the media is still shielding him.
>>>We need permanent movement to the right. Aint gonna happen until we take back government AND education and the media.<<<
There’s a fair number of us in education right now, working like termites, undermining the leftist plan and making our own long march through the institutions. One example: I have a bright kid in my freshman English class. Very much an Obama supporter. I went out of my way to provide some required reading for him to do. He now has a copy of “The Federalist Papers.”
As an extra added bonus, I imagine that I won’t be called on the carpet before the Teacher Standards and Practices Commission for giving a student a copy of it, either.
Another example: most of my students are Native American. One bright kid was telling me he was very much in favor of national health insurance. Using Socratic questioning, I had him come to the conclusion that the federal government’s relations with Native people showed that government shouldn’t be trusted. Then the zinger: “But you’ll trust that same government with universal health care?” Twas very cool to see the light suddenly turn on in that kid’s mind.
I could go on and on. The impact may not be felt for a generation or two, but I am deeply devoted to traditional learning using discipline, practice, and conservative values, and kids are lined up every semester for my classes. There are more of us out there than you may realize, which is why some schools of education are now hysterically trying to rein in new teachers with political-dominated selection (look at the new teacher standards at the University of Minnesota).
Please do not give up hope. And I have tenure.
May God Bless and Use You
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